Year: 2013

Antonio’s Pizzeria – A Shannen Doherty Fave

Way back in September 2011, while the Grim Cheaper and I were out and about doing some stalking in the San Fernando Valley area, we happened to drive past Antonio’s Pizzeria and the GC suggested that we pop in. He had dined at Antonio’s several times in the past and remembered that the place had quite a few autographed headshots on the walls. Um, autographed headshots? Count me in! So we immediately pulled the car over and, let me tell you, I just about died when I walked through the front doors and spotted a photograph of my girl Shannen Doherty prominently displayed! Because the GC and I had just eaten prior to passing by Antonio’s, though, we were not able to dine there that day, unfortunately. But I did add the restaurant to my To-Stalk list and finally made it back out there this past October, when fellow stalkers Lavonna and Kim were in town visiting from Ohio. After watching a taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the three of us headed over to the Italian eatery, with Miss Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, in tow.

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The eatery, which was first known as Miceli’s (and which I believe, but have been unable to determine, may have been opened by the same family behind the famous Miceli’s in Hollywood), was originally founded in 1957 by a man named Antonio Miceli. At the time, it was the San Fernando Valley’s very first Italian restaurant and all of the recipes were authored by Antonio’s mother. The pizzeria quickly became a Sherman Oaks staple and Frank Sinatra was even known to have dined there once. In 1988, the establishment was purchased by Alexandra and Steven Lunardon. The siblings, who were longtime Antonio’s regulars, had been looking to buy a franchise restaurant at the time, but when they learned that Antonio was selling Miceli’s, they jumped at the chance to buy it. Antonio’s one stipulation? That the brother-and-sister duo not change anything about the decades-old site. Um, LOVE IT. As you can see below, the place definitely does look like something straight out of the ‘50s, but in a good way.

Absolutely LOVE the vintage sign out front!

Because I am diabetic and carbs are on my no-no list, I could not partake in an Antonio’s pizza, which the restaurant is famous for. Lavonna, Kim and Pinky did opt for a pie, though, and they absolutely loved it. I instead ordered up Chicken Marsala (my fave), which was not actually on the menu. The eatery serves a Veal Scallopini A La Marsala and because I do not like veal, I asked if they would be willing to swap it out for chicken and they happily obliged. It was quite delicious, too. I highly recommend stalking the place if you are in the area.

Besides Shannen Doherty, other celebs who have been known to frequent Antonio’s include Adam Sandler, David Spade, Monica Potter, Keanu Reeves, Alyssa Milano, Larry Miller, Fred Willard, Kirk Cameron, Jay Leno, Alex Trebek, Jennie Garth, Peter Facinelli, Jerry Seinfeld, and Michael Richards. Sadly though, the headshots that I so loved looking at during my first visit to the eatery have since been removed and put into storage after the one of Frank Sinatra (which was autographed!) was stolen by a patron. Such an incredible bummer!

And I just have to say here that, while I know it sounds crazy and I would never say it about any other celeb, while watching the WE tv reality series Shannen Says, I came to the conclusion that Shannen Doherty and I would most-definitely become good friends if we ever were to meet. (Shannen, are you listening? ) Love that girl! I mean look at how AWESOME she is to her fans in the clip below. Oh, if only all celebs could be that cool.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Antonio’s Pizzeria is located at 13619 Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. Ironically enough, located directly next door to Antonio’s, at 13625 Ventura Boulevard, is a vacant eatery that was once the site of Prezzo’s restaurant, where Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) took Toni Marchette (Rebecca Gayheart) for their first date on fave show Beverly Hills, 90210.

January 11, 2013
A Stalking Day

I spent all day yesterday out and about stalking, so I did not have time to write a post, unfortunately. But I will be back tomorrow with a whole new location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

January 10, 2013
El Pollo del Mar from “L.A. Story”

One location that I had been dying to find for years was El Pollo del Mar (yes, that translates to The Chicken of the Sea LOL), aka the supposed Santa Barbara-area resort featured in the 1991 flick L.A. Story. Try as I might, though, I just could not seem to track the place down. So, when a fellow stalker named Scott wrote a comment on my L.A. Story gas station post informing me of the site’s location, my head just about exploded from excitement! In reality, the Mediterranean-style hotel is an absolutely gargantuan private residence that overlooks the Pacific Ocean in Long Beach. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that El Pollo del Mar was a) someone’s home (!!!) and b) located in the LBC. I honestly would have bet money on the fact that it was an actual hotel in Santa Barbara. Mind officially blown! And while I was chomping at the bit to stalk the locale just as soon as Scott told me about it, because I do not get down to the Long Beach area very often, I was not able to do so until this past December.

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Sadly, the El Pollo del Mar house is located on a gated street, so only a small portion of it is visible to the public. Man, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that thing!

In real life, the gargantuan residence, which was originally built in 1926 and is named Casa Oceana, boasts three bedrooms, five baths, 7,576 square feet of living space, and a 1.28-acre plot of seaside land.

El Pollo del Mar pops up towards the end of L.A. Story as the charming resort where disgruntled weatherman Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin) takes his girlfriend SanDeE* (my girl Sarah Jessica Parker) for the weekend. While there he runs into his dream girl, Sara McDowel (Victoria Tennant), who is on a reconciliation trip with her ex-husband, Roland Mackey (Richard E. Grant). Drama, of course, ensues. As you can see below, the property is absolutely huge and can easily masquerade as a hotel. In fact, I am surprised that it hasn’t been used more frequently in productions.

And, as I mentioned, while the majority of the residence cannot be seen from the road, I was BEYOND floored to discover that the front gate . . .

. . . and archway that appeared in the movie were visible. Yay!

And for the rest, there’s always Bing Aerial Views! I still can’t believe the place is a private house! I mean, look at that thing!

I am kicking myself for not having walked down to the beachside of the property while we were there because it, too, appeared in L.A. Story, in the scene in which Harris and Sara get into a fight over their respective significant others.

All of the interior El Pollo del Mar scenes were filmed (I believe) twenty miles north of Long Beach at the now-defunct Ambassador Hotel, which used to stand at 3400 Wilshire Boulevard in Koreatown.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Scott for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The El Pollo del Mar hotel from L.A. Story is actually a private home located at 20 37th Place in Long Beach.

January 9, 2013
Shaheen’s House from "Into the Night"

Last week, fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, emailed me with the following message, “I know you aren’t big on blogging about popular movie locations, especially those discussed elsewhere on the Internet (which is why I have SADLY never been able to read about Marty McFly’s house on your site!!!), but I have a location that may be of interest.” His logic was five-fold: “The reasons I think it may be worth an IAMNOTASTALKER post: 1. It’s from Into the Night — not exactly a popular movie or a location that has been discussed ad nauseam online. 2. The house is in San Marino, which isn’t too far from where you live … or at least where you live for the next few weeks. 3. The house is definitely unique. It has mosque-like architecture yet is in the midst of a neighborhood of typical suburban homes. It seems soooooooo out of place. 4. Because it’s so out of place, I’m curious if there is a story behind it. If there is, I suppose it’d make for an interesting blog. 5. In addition to the house’s uniqueness, its grounds are impeccably manicured … or at least look that way from the ‘street view’ on Google Maps. It would probably make for some nice photos.” I was, of course, intrigued by Owen’s email and immediately popped the address he provided into Google. Well, let me tell you, once I saw the Street View image of the place, I knew that it was a must-stalk and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there less than 24 hours later. Thank you, Owen!

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I did not tell the GC anything about the house prior to us stalking it and I believe his exact words upon first pulling up to the place were, “What the #&%@!& is that?” LOL To say the dwelling is unique would be an understatement. In fact, I think it is safe to say that I have never seen anything quite like it before in my entire life. Well, outside of Disneyland, anyway.

Owen was certainly correct in his assertion – the abode is definitely out of place in the neighborhood and bears a significant difference from the Anywhere, U.S.A.-style residences located directly to its left and right, both of which are pictured below.

You can see its disparity from the neighboring homes below.

According to An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles, the home has been dubbed “The Mosque” by neighboring residents. And while the book states that the four-bedroom, four-bath, 5,283-square-foot structure, which sits on 0.54 acres, was originally built in 1980, all of the property records that I was able to dig up dated its construction at 1973. Amazingly enough, though, outside of the one-sentence blurb in An Architectural Guidebook, I could not find any history of the place online or in print, which is absolutely bizarre! I mean come on, a house like that must have some sort of a backstory. The only information that I was able to gather online was that the same people who originally purchased the property in 1973 (and who also most likely commissioned the place) still own it to this day.

Even odder still was the fact that I could not find a copy of Into the Night anywhere! For whatever reason, the 1985 flick is not available to stream on iTunes, Netflix, Amazon, or YouTube. None of my local Blockbusters had the DVD, either, nor did Vidiots in Santa Monica, which usually stocks every movie known to man. I think it is safe to say that I spent more time trying to track down a copy of the flick than I did researching the house! Thankfully, I was finally able to find the DVD at Videotheque in South Pasadena, which wound up being one of the coolest video stores that I have ever been to. I highly recommend a visit if you are looking for a hard-to-find rental. But I digress. The Moorish-style residence, which is supposedly located in Beverly Hills’ Trousdale Estates neighborhood, only appears once in Into the Night, in the scene in which Ed Okin (Jeff Goldblum) goes to the home of Shaheen Parvici (Irene Papas) to sell some stolen jewels.

As you can see below, the home has not changed much in the 28 years since Into the Night was filmed.

Although, the reflecting pool shown in the flick featured a fountain that is no longer there. And while the façade of the home appeared to be gray in Into the Night, I am not sure if the exterior was actually that color at the time of the filming or if it appeared to be so due to the movie’s lighting.

The real life interior of the home was also used in Into the Night.

As was the property’s massive pool and central courtyard area.

You can check out some fabulous aerial views of the pool and courtyard on Bing Maps. What I wouldn’t give to see the pool in person! It looks pretty amazing.

Fellow stalker Gilles informed me that the house also appeared in the Season 5 episode of Dynasty titled “Domestic Intrigue” as the supposed Istanbul, Turkey-area hotel where Adam Carrington (Gordon Thomson) met with Dominique Deveraux (Diahann Carroll).

The interior of the property masqueraded as the interior of the palace belonging to Rashid Ahmed (John Saxon) in the episode. For the exterior of Rashid’s palace, an incredibly unique mansion named Casa Blanca in Carpinteria was used – a place I am definitely going to have to stalk in the near future! You can check out some photographs of it here.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Shaheen’s house from Into the Night is located at 2250 Montecito Drive in San Marino.

January 8, 2013
Ben and Leslie’s New House from “Parks and Recreation”

Back in October, while watching the fabulous Season 5 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Halloween Surprise”, I became just a wee-bit obsessed with tracking down the Anywhere, U.S.A.-style home that Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) leased with her longtime boyfriend, Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott – whom I just saw the other day at my local Target, but I digress). I had a pretty strong inkling that the residence was most-likely located in the Sherman Oaks area, in the same vicinity as the dwelling used as Diane’s (Lucy Lawless’) house on the series, where most of the “Halloween Surprise” episode had taken place.

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Luckily, while watching “Halloween Surprise”, I had spotted what I thought was an address number of 4620 on the curb in front of Leslie and Ben’s rental, so I immediately started searching through all of the 4600 blocks in Sherman Oaks. Sure enough, I found the place just a mile or so south of Diane’s home. Woot woot! It was not until two weekends ago, though, that I finally managed to drag the Grim Cheaper out there to stalk it.

In “Halloween Surprise”, Leslie takes her BFF Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) to look at a home she is thinking of renting because, as she explains it, “Ben is coming back from D.C. in ten days and we are moving into a house together. He would move in my place, but it’s a scary, nightmare, hoarder nest. His words. And Ann’s. And the official report filed by the Health Department.” LOL While there, Leslie decides to lease the place (despite the fact that it does not have her desired “trampoline room”), but those plans get thwarted when Ben is offered a new job in D.C. When Leslie later returns to the residence to tell the agent that they will no no longer be taking the place, Ben shows up and (SPOILER ALERT), in a tear-inducing moment, proposes to Leslie on bended-knee. And while the property has yet to appear in any other Parks and Recreations episodes and it was never actually made clear in “Halloween Surprise” if the newly-betrothed couple did actually lease the place or not, I am assuming that they did.

While the house, which was originally built in 1938, looks very much the same in person as it did onscreen, I was not expecting it to be so large. Because the angle featured in the episode was a tight one, showing only one side, I assumed that it was a fairly modest residence with only one or two bedrooms.

In actuality, though, the house boasts four bedrooms, four baths and a spacious 2,688 square feet of living space.

And while I would have bet money on the fact that the real life interior of the property had been used in the episode, that was actually not the case. As you can see in these photographs of the home, aside from the massive stone fireplace, nothing about the actual interior matches what appeared onscreen.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Ben and Leslie’s new house from Parks and Recreation is located at 4620 Wortser Avenue in Sherman Oaks.

January 7, 2013
Another Day Off . . .

Sorry to do this yet again, but the moving preparations have already begun, making my life quite hectic, and I unfortunately did not have time to write a new blog post for today. I will be back on Monday, though, with a whole new location! Have a great weekend!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

January 4, 2013
Redwood Bar & Grill from “Bridesmaids”

Once the rain finally stopped falling this past Saturday morning, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to downtown Los Angeles to stalk a Bridesmaids location that has been at the very top of my To-Stalk list for months now – Redwood Bar & Grill, where Officer Rhodes (Chris O’Dowd) and Annie Walker (Kristen Wiig) went on a spontaneous date towards the end of the movie. I found this locale thanks to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, who has a page dedicated to a few of the spots featured in the 2011 flick.

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Before arriving at Redwood Bar & Grill, I knew virtually nothing about the place, other than the fact that it had been used in Bridesmaids. And because so little of it was shown in the movie, I had no idea what to expect of the interior. Boy, was I in for a surprise!

While fairly non-descript on the outside, the interior of Redwood Bar & Grill is all dim lighting, dark wood paneling and themed nautical décor. Dining there feels like dining in the middle of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, only better. Unfortunately, because the lighting was so low, though, the vast majority of my pictures did not come out. Ugh! Mike, from MovieShotsLA, has promised that he will teach me how to use the aperture settings on my camera in the near future, but in the meantime, you can check out some cool photos of the bar here. (Now why couldn’t my pics have come out that clear?)

Redwood Bar & Grill actually saw its origins as a 1930s-era hamburger stand where Philadelphia native Samuel “Eddie” Spivak sold 10-cent burgers out of a small storefront located at 234 West 1st Street, just downstairs from the Los Angeles Times newsroom. In 1942, Eddie expanded his eatery, as well as its menu, added a bar, and renamed the place the “Redwood House”. Due to its proximity to the newspaper offices, the restaurant became extremely popular with the journalist set, who dubbed the site the “Red Dog”. According to the obituary of Alice Broude, who worked at the Redwood House for more than 50 years, a certain unnamed reporter would place his daily order by stomping his feet three times loudly on the floor. Ha! You can see a photograph of the original Redwood House here and a picture of its former menu here. When the Times Mirror Co., owner of the L.A. Times, decided to expand into the Redwood space in January 1970, Spivak moved his restaurant one block south, where it remains to this day. Despite the move, the watering hole remained popular with Times journalists. So much so that for years the bar was equipped with a special red phone that was connected directly to the paper’s main news desk, just in case any last minute tips came in. It was not only journalists who were drawn to the site, though. Over the years, the Redwood House was frequented by the likes of actors Burt Reynolds and Jack Warden, former presidents John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, and such notorious gangsters as Frankie Carbo (who, according to Broude, refused to eat meat on Fridays) and Mickey Cohen (who, also according to Broude, was a fabulous tipper).

At some point in time, the establishment’s name was changed to the Redwood 2nd Street Saloon and it was taken over by new owners In and Ho Park. Sadly, in June 2005, due to dwindling business and failed lease negotiations, Ho and In closed the eatery, which most regulars had described as a real life Cheers (where everybody knows your name). Thankfully though, restaurateurs Christian Frizell and Dev Dugal stepped in, signed a new lease, renovated the interior, and, in September 2005, re-opened the site as a pirate-themed watering hole named the Redwood Bar & Grill. The décor is now decidedly unique and swashbuckler-esque. I absolutely fell in love with the skeleton candelabra pictured below. I so need to find one for myself to add to my Halloween decorations!

Besides spicing up the décor, Frizell and Dugal also revamped the Redwood menu, and, let me tell you, the food is to-die-for! I opted for the Redwood’s Veggie Burger, made on the premises out of mushrooms, vegetables, and quinoa, and not only was it divine, but absolutely HUGE! The GC ordered a cup of the restaurant’s New England Clam Chowder, which was also fabulous, especially considering the chill in the air that day. I honestly cannot more highly recommend stalking Redwood Bar & Grill! It is a shame that we only just discovered the place as I have a feeling that, were we not moving to Palm Springs in three weeks, it would have quickly become a favorite.

In Bridesmaids, Redwood Bar & Grill is where Rhodes and Annie grabbed a drink after her ill-fated flight to Las Vegas. It is there that Rhodes uttered the super-cute line, “There’s something about you – something about you that sticks.” As you can see below, the place looked quite a bit different onscreen.

Because Bridesmaids was set in Milwaukee, the exterior of an actual Milwaukee-area watering hole – Norman One Step (which is now closed), located at 3218 West Cameron Street – was used for the establishing shot of the bar in the movie.

Redwood Bar & Grill also popped up in the 2009 flick (500) Days of Summer, as The Mill – aka the spot where Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Summer (Zooey Deschanel) and their greeting-card-writing co-workers karaoked on Day (28).

The stage where Summer and the rest of the gang performed is actually there in real life, too, although the Redwood does not actually host karaoke nights.

And the skeleton candelabra that I fell in love with was even pictured briefly in the flick. Love it!

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Redwood Bar & Grill from Bridesmaids is located at 316 West 2nd Street in downtown Los Angeles. The eatery is open daily from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. You can visit the Redwood’s official website here.

January 3, 2013
Paula’s House from “Four Christmases”

While I realize that the holidays are now over and that I should be posting about a non-Yule-related locale, today’s house is one that I have been searching for for over a year and finally found on the morning of December 25th – yes, it was a Christmas miracle – and I am FAR too excited to wait a full year to blog about it. So please excuse my belatedness. And now, on with the post! Ever since first seeing the movie Four Christmases back in 2008, I have wanted to stalk the supposed Marin-area residence where Brad’s (Vince Vaughn’s) mom, Paula (Sissy Spacek), lived. Thankfully, the flick’s production notes stated that the exterior of the “Zen-styled living space” was actually a private home in Topanga Canyon, so I knew where to begin my search. Try as I might, though, I could not seem to find the darn place. Then, on Christmas morning, while my mom was at work (I know, boo!), my dad was napping and the Grim Cheaper was preparing our turkey dinner, I decided to get some cyber-stalking in and did a quick Google search for Topanga Canyon cottages with stone fireplaces. Lo and behold, one of the first results to come back was a real estate listing for an adorable little bungalow that I immediately recognized as Paula’s! Yay! And while the residence did not appear to be visible from the road, I could hardly wait to stalk the place and dragged the GC right on over there just a few days after we returned home.

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Well, let me tell you, when we pulled up to the property and saw that it was actually visible from the street, I was so excited that I just about started doing cartwheels! Yahoo! As you can see below, the cottage is absolutely idyllic in person. It literally looks like something ripped right out of a fairy tale!

In real life, the residence boasts two bedrooms, two baths, 1,632 square feet of living space, a 236-square-foot detached studio, a sprawling one-acre lot, a fireplace constructed out of River Rock, a sauna, an eat-in kitchen, an outdoor patio, a wrap-around deck, a footbridge built over Garaptas Creek (which runs through the property), several meandering pathways, and numerous park-like areas consisting of willow, oak, sycamore and pine trees. The place is absolutely stunning!

Paula’s bungalow actually shows up only once in Four Christmases, and very briefly at that, in the scene in which Brad and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) arrive at their third holiday destination – which was my personal favorite. The Taboo game segment (which you can watch by clicking below) was absolutely hilarious – “I don’t have an attitude. I’ve shut down. She buzzes me, I’m trying to explain to you how to the play the game, you obviously don’t understand the best ways to play the game, and I’m shutting down.” Love it! But I digress.

In an AMAZING twist, Four Christmases production designer Shepherd Frankel contacted me after reading my post on Brad and Kate’s house from the movie. (And yes, I just about died when I received his email in which he said that he loved reading my blog and seeing my detective work unfold!!!!) Shepherd was nice enough to answer all of the questions posed in my various Four Christmases posts (which I will get to in a bit) and also had this to say when I asked if Paula’s home was indeed a real location: “Yes, we shot at a house in Topanga, but . . . I added all kinds of things to make it bigger. I created sun rooms by enclosing decks. Added skylights built up to help the house appear bigger. Created an entrance. Did all of the set-ups and ‘places’ in the yard.” As you can see below, the real life residence does look quite a bit different – and much smaller – than its onscreen counterpart, although it is (thankfully) still very recognizable from the film.

Amazingly enough, the stained-glass interior of Paula’s cottage was just a set that was built inside of a soundstage at Ren-Mar Studios (now Red Studios Hollywood, which I blogged about here). The set was so incredibly realistic, though, that, before reading through the movie’s production notes, I was absolutely convinced that the actual interior had been used, which speaks to Shepherd’s artistry. As you can see in these real estate photographs as compared to the screen captures below, the actual interior of the residence is much smaller than its onscreen counterpart, and much simpler in design. You can check out some fabulous photographs of Shepherd’s set on his website here.

As I mentioned above, Shepherd was nice enough to answer a couple of questions posed in my other Four Christmases posts. First, he informed me that the backyard of Marilyn’s (Mary Steenburgen’s) house was not a mixture of the actual backyard and a set, as I had surmised. According to Shepherd, “ It was all done onstage where I replicated a version of the rear elevation of the location, but modified it to suit our needs.” He also told me that the view behind Marilyn’s fence was a “plate shot” of the home’s actual neighborhood.

Shepherd also explained that the deleted scene in which Brad and Kate called their respective parents to tell them that they would not be coming home for Christmas was not supposed to have taken place at the couple’s residence, as I had guessed, but in an upstairs coffee break room at the dance studio. So the differing interiors now make sense.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Paula’s house from Four Christmases is located at 1290 Oakwood Drive in Topanga Canyon.

January 2, 2013